Garden Railway Forum

Well having just moved house the time to start building my first permanent line is here. May be a while before I get actually cracking at the building work but the planning is starting.


This is the blank canvas that I have. The railway is being planned to be a single line affair with reverse loops/circuits at each end. The current plan is to run the line up the left hand side in this pic, across the top of the garden by the fence & down the right hand side of the garden via the shed which has become Fox road works (the road I live on inspiring the name). The highest point is the far end of the garden which will be ground level laid, by the time the line reaches the limits on the left & right I think it will be about 4ft high. I hope to mostly build up this height to keep the line laid on the ground rather than timber or similar. (the duck is not planned to be part of the line).



Inside the works! Fully mains wired with lights. The existing workbench on the left hand side of the shed will stay as part of the works. The actual line will run lower down  on the right handside of the shed.

Next job is to start marking out the route with sticks & a spirit level to try & keep it fairly level.

In the meantime Fox road works has been busy building & rebuilding rolling stock. Must say I do like having my own shed to do the work in, have my MD player wired in & an old PC which is Wi-Fi connected as well. Infact the wife PM's me when dinners ready or she wants me!  :D  :roll:

Some stock updates....



The IP Jessie has been re-engined using a drill motor from maplins. New gearbox also fitted & a fan from a PC added to the inside of the grill. More detail waiting to be added but at least it's working again.


The NWNGR coach damaged by the 8 year old autistic kid has been rebuilt.

Firstly the old damaged planks were removed...


Next Virgin trains coffee stirrers were fitted to replace the planks...


Then cut & sanded to shape....
Also have fitted roundhouse couplers, moved the bogies inboard about 4mm & fitted 4 LEDS inside the coach. Now to do the other one..



The IP Rapier has been messed around with....


An Andel bogie flat built...


A couple of IP flats built....



Other stock tweaked...


A new wagon built from scratch using Accucraft axleboxes & hinged sides..


The two over size 0-16.5 ballest hopper wagons I built 11 years ago have been re chassied & modded to be 32mm gauge/scale.


Finally I found this cooper craft wagon in my folks garden, I built it in 1989 to go with my 1st mamod. It was a bit messed up so I rebuilt it using IP wheels.

Plus it looks like Fox road works may have been rail connected at some point.........

niiiiice, lots of room for a great line in that garden!

those flats and guards van look familler, to an extent!

Wow, nice place Mr Pendo! Having a workshop is good innit! Looks like your all set.

If the line was level with the bottom of the fence at the end/top of the grass, you'd get some cracking shots over the field.

WOW, very nice, looks like your set to go Do liike the little wagon you found that you built for your mamod , and the rest of your stuff

Looks Like you have a Fabulous canvass looking foirward to seeing things develop.

great place to start, love your stock too, especially those nwngr coaches!

Nice pad! Looks like there will be a lot going on!

(the duck is not planned to be part of the line).

Just goes to show, you can't plan for every eventuality!


Excellent potential with that site and it's great to see that you've managed to get a "bit" of work done during the move
Really looking forward to seeing the progress.

COOOR! Just imagine the possibilities....

I like those hoppers. I am planning to build a rake of three large ones. Looks like you are having a useful time in the workshop!
Now which way are you deciding to go with the railway, welsh slate, prototype, freelance....

That's not a garden, it's a field!

Almost perfectly laid out- you can have the main stations raised (walling if you can afford it, or log roll or something facing perhaps?) which gives you easy access but the top bit is at ground level for scenic goodness- I think a lot of people would kill for a garden with that much potential!

Endless, Nameless wrote:That's not a garden, it's a field!

Almost perfectly laid out- you can have the main stations raised (walling if you can afford it, or log roll or something facing perhaps?) which gives you easy access but the top bit is at ground level for scenic goodness- I think a lot of people would kill for a garden with that much potential!

*loads gun*
Very nice garden.

Mr. Bond of the DVLR wrote:Now which way are you deciding to go with the railway, welsh slate, prototype, freelance....

Actually mostly freelance but with a touch of Wales thrown in, well I would have to really after the amount of driving trains in wales I have done before. Hope to add elements of the Central wales line as that was the first one I ever signed, plus it has everything that I like as it winds through shropshire & Wales. Rural & nice. Of course slate will feature during construction & maybe as traffic in the end.

Oh & those hoppers are still way off being finished, am planning on them actually working with sliding bottom doors & chutes to drop ballest down on the cess side of the line. Well thats the plan anyway! Can't believe I built them for my 0-16.5 line, they were a tad big for that I must say. Built them in my signalbox at the time on a week of nights with diversions running past all the while. Should of took other stock in for a size guide really.

Endless, Nameless wrote:That's not a garden, it's a field!

LOL, it is a good size. Actually was one of things that was important when we were looking to buy teh new house. We found a great place before & it was perfect bar the fact that the garden was so sloped I would of had to make a rack & pinion railway or had one end ground level & the other end about 15foot high!.
Due to the size I will have to plan stages of the line as it's going to take a while to get it all done.

made-in-england wrote: *loads gun*
D

Eeek, Thankfully we have a good thick gate leading to the garden & the shed's pretty thick walled to take cover in!!

I like the workshop with the bits of railwayana and the "just testing" patch from a spray can on the wall - I have a whole multi-coloured shed door like that!

Wow, that is a garden with some potential, although the duck need not be evicted, the line I went to today had 3 wild ducks walking around and quacking at everyone

After endless pacing about the garden/field I'm slowly planning what the route is going to look like. Originally I was planning on running through the shed but looking at it roughly it looks like that will mean the line being about 2ft high through the shed part. So instead I'm planning on a level bypass line around the shed & then a line looping off the main run with a decent gradient on it to run through the shed. RC & good strong loco's being able to access the station in the shed via the gradient whilst lower power non RC fitted ones can simply bypass it & stay on the level part instead. With the purchase of another strong battery diesel loco then I have two strong loco's to drag rolling stock & low power loco's back to the shed. Well thats currently the plan...

Maybe I'm thinking aloud.

And you could get a geared loco such as a vincent!
What features do you want?

Ooops another impulse buy today, 2nd hand SR(L&B) bogie brake. Figured I could use it as a brake for my 2 NWNGR coaches. Now I have to decide if I should repaint it? Shame it wasn't the plain grey one but hey it was a decent price & is mint, infact it looks unused. Really nice model as well.

Plus I bought some Cows & Horses, slightly underscale @ 1:20th but near enough for me.





I'm now thinking of putting slight spacers on the NWNGR coach bogies to get the roof line a bit more similar?

Oh & can anyone confirm that NWNGR coaches had black ends rather than the same as the bodyside?

Is there a way of dropping the body on the bogies to bring it inline? The bottom isn't inline with the coaches either.

Re the L and B van, I took the bogies off mine, removed the spacers, refitted the bogies without the couplings attached and screwed the couplings directly to the headstocks. The van looks better for being a bit lower and there's no problem with the couplings on reverse curves (down to about 4' 6" radius on the points).

Your NWNGR coaches are rather nice and it would be a shame to raise them to suit the van!

NWNGR coaches had ends the same colour as the main body